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Diagnosis of Stuttering


Everyone feels that identifying stutters is easy. However, it is not. In fact, disfluencies do not always stand out and you may not always be able to recognize that these are actually caused by a speech impediment and not just anxiety. Stuttering often affects much more than just a person's speech. The listeners may not always be able to detect the characteristics of stuttering in the speech.

The diagnosis of stuttering can be performed by a speech language pathologist. The pathologist will ask you to speak in a lot of different contexts. The therapist would then note the speech problems that a person experiences in various situations. The therapist will also assess the various ways in which a person deals with and copes with the various disfluencies. This helps the pathologist to determine the specific speech problems that the person has.

There are no lab tests for stuttering. However, the therapist does gather information from the patient. This includes gathering background information of the patient as well as medical information. The pathologist may also offer you a variety of assessments such as assessment of your language skills and the rate of speech. The therapist then analyzes the fluency of speech and the rate at which you are able to speak. This helps the therapist understand if you have a speech fluency disorder or a speech disorder.

It is important to seek a doctor’s help if you have a family history of stuttering, have any other speech disorders such as stammering, experience anxiety when speaking in public, or you have experienced stuttering for more than six months. 
Signs & Symptoms
Treatments
References
  1. Pirkko Rautakoski, Therese Hannus, Susanna Simberg, N. Kenneth Sandnabba, Pekka Santtila, Genetic and environmental effects on stuttering: A twin study from Finland, Journal of Fluency Disorders, Available online 28 February 2012, ISSN 0094-730X, 10.1016/j.jfludis.2011.12.003.
  2. Gerald A. Maguire, Christopher Y. Yeh, Brandon S. Ito, Overview of the Diagnosis and Treatment of Stuttering, Journal of Experimental & Clinical Medicine, Available online 2 March 2012, ISSN 1878-3317, 10.1016/j.jecm.2012.02.001.